At first, the heel turn wasn't working since HHH was constantly overshadowing him - but damn was he awesome as a heel last year.
I missed how paranoid and compulsive he was. I missed how he used to give hugs and sing songs to Vince. I missed how he had those awesome series of matches with Face Angle. I missed his music. I thought it was cool.
And best of all, I missed how he beat the crap out of Michael Cole right before last year's King of the Ring. :D
Oh, man I miss him too. I was so sick of his "bionic redneck" act by the end of last year, and his heel turn completely rejuvenated him. And just when the fans seemed to get into booing him, they turned him face again.
In hindsight, his creepy "let's watch a movie" skit with JR was gold, his beaning Lita with a chair was gold, his making JR blade in Oklahoma was gold, his "my name is Stone Cold and I don't deserve this" was gold ... man he was entertaining.
This may be deserving a new topic, but I think Raw would be a much better show with a heel Austin feuding with a face Flair. It is such a shame they turned him face again the night after the InVasion. The almighty dollar makes the final calls though, I guess.
Past hills of chambermaids' dark bare arms and fields of muscles quilted to the bone, Right now I'm flying over, yeah right now I'm flying home.
Heel Austin was ruling the world on a nightly basis, especially his wars with Angle over who got to be McMahon's number one lackey, leading to the infamous branding of Angle as the "Dangerous Dork", and the fact that he had a near limitless supply of talented faces to carry him through matches throughout the run. (Jericho, Angle, Rock, Benoit)
And as horrid as Steph-O-Mac's screeching was, I just found something incredibly funny (in an "Oh Jesus, this is Godawful" way) about Justin Credible and Chavo singing "Wind Beneath My Ring" (complete with Scowling Austin-Head Bouncing Ball)
...which involved one of my favorite visuals in a long time: Kanyon shielding himself from milk with his US Championship belt.
"I'm a street-walking cheetah with a heart full of napalm. I'm the runaway son of the nucleur A-bomb. I'm the the world's forgotten boy, the one who searches and destroys."
The Kanyon shield pales in comparison to the point blank milk blasting given to Shawn Stasiak! (IMO of course) There's just something totally gratifying about you and a friend yelling at the screen. "Blast him! Blast him damn it! He's right in front of you!!" and watching Kurt send Stasiak into orbit.
I kind of miss heel Austin (my favorite moment was beating up Spike Dudley because Spike wouldn't sign Austin's petition stating that his match against Jericho & Benoit was unfair), but I can't get too nostalgic about it because it coincided with face Angle, and face Angle really sucked badly due to incompetent writing and booking (Milkamania being a perfect example).
I am loving Austin right about now, though, because apparently he absolutely WENT OFF on the WWE creative team on Byte This, stating quite clearly that he thinks they have been doing a miserable job for a long time. It's about time someone pointed out that the emperor has no clothes. If Austin took proactive steps to make things better by suggesting the feud with Eddie, as seems to be the case, I could just kiss him.
Yeah, I saw that too. Kudos to Austin for being vocal.
Heel Austin was one of the best moves the WWE had done last year. The only thing they could have done even better was plant the seeds that, since Austin hated McMahon so much, he joined the Alliance to further that. They tried to, but it got lost in the terrible storyline. If they'd made that clear it would have given a lot more fire to the Alliance feud. Oh well.
I miss whiney Heel Jericho on a totally random subject. Conspiracy Victim all the way!!
It's funny I saw this thread when I did, because as of this very moment I am watching Bret Hart vs. Steve Austin from Survivor Series 1996.
Even six years ago, when boring matches were rather the norm in the World Wrestling Federation, Stone Cold Steve Austin was better than he is now. To wit:
--His opening interview just before hitting the ring. After Todd Pettengill's interview-opening question, Austin had this to say:
“You expect me to be intimidated by the way you build him up like that? You know, Bret Hart calls himself the Excellence of Execution-- the best there is, the best there was, and the best there ever will be. It's fulla crap. Bret Hart, a cliche is a cliche, and an ass-whipping is an ass-whipping, and that's exactly what you're gonna get. And that's the bottom line.”
Even those five sentences, spoken in about two minutes tops, are better than the interviews he's giving now.
“I wanna tell you a story about a man named Jed...”, whatever. In Austin's interviews today, he goes off on tangents like that just so the crowd can get their “What?” fixation in-- and then he says, “But I didn't come here to tell you about that.” Well then why the hell did he just spend five minutes (including pauses) to damn well speak the freakin' Beverly Hillbillies theme?
--Austin's ring psychology seems to be much better in this match against Bret Hart than in most of his recent matches. Austin has spent a good deal of the match so far working on The Hitman's neck-- sleeper holds on the mat while bouncing off the canvas; raking Hart's neck across the ropes, etc. A slugfest has ensued, but Austin's offense is a far sight better than his “punch-kick-punch-kick-punch-punch-What?-punch-Stunner” style that he currently uses.
--The evil, sadistic grin that Austin uses whenever he's firmly in control of the match is great. I think facial expressions are very important in the ring. Austin looks as if he's truly enjoying beating the hell out of Bret Hart. It helps with the suspension of disbelief, and helps get the crowd more emotionally involved in the match. Recently, Austin has seemed very poker-faced to me-- utilizing the same facial expression 24/7.
You know something brothers? A lot of our current in-ring perception of Steve Austin could be attributed to the writing, I agree. But everything I've just mentioned, Austin himself could implement into his matches to help make the improvement-- and he hasn't. So don't be all “poor Stone Cold”, because dammit, he hasn't been putting out the effort in the ring that he used to. He's less emotional in the ring, he's lost much of his psychology, and his interviews (once the best in the WWF) have degenerated into ten-minute Whatfests.
Even when you don't like what's going on at your job, you still have to go out there and give your best effort. Everyone here must understand that. Doesn't matter if you don't like your boss, you've still got to go out there and be committed to giving your customers what they want. And if you're not going to make that committment, perhaps you should find another job. So it is with Austin. He's settling for being what he is right now, when he can be so much more-- and it all must begin with him!
“What's so great about crack?” “Uh, uh, it enhances your personality.” “Yes, but what if you're an asshole?”
Originally posted by ekedolphin“I wanna tell you a story about a man named Jed...”, whatever. In Austin's interviews today, he goes off on tangents like that just so the crowd can get their “What?” fixation in-- and then he says, “But I didn't come here to tell you about that.” Well then why the hell did he just spend five minutes (including pauses) to damn well speak the freakin' Beverly Hillbillies theme?
Ditto. The story about a Man named Jed was funny. And it was funny the time when he made like he was going to say it again, but didn't. Now if he had started doing it every night (like the list thing) then I would be annoyed.
-Jag
"You gotta hate somebody before this is over. Them, me, it doesn't matter."
"Hate, who do I hate? You tell me."
"Who do you love?"
-Wintermute to Case in William Gibson's Neuromancer
Actually, the more I see it, the more I like Austin's current interview style. His promos for 3 years prior to his heel turn had become tired and predictable. As a heel, he adopted a new style, then introduced another new one when he turned back face. I like the lists he does now, and I think the audience participation is a good thing. I hate it when the crowd chants "what" when Austin isn't involved in whatever is going on in the ring at the time, but other than that I think it is great.
I soooooooo miss heel Austin. I was never a fan of super-face Austin, and his current character is quite boring to me as well. ::sigh:: Good times, good times...
Matthew: You would've loved it, David. A week in a foreign country, strange people, strange customs... Dave: Oh, I know what you mean. I've been to Canada.
Originally posted by ekedolphinIt's funny I saw this thread when I did, because as of this very moment I am watching Bret Hart vs. Steve Austin from Survivor Series 1996.
Good for you. You watched a match with Austin in it before he broke his neck. Sorta puts a different spin on what you just said.
While working security at a local indy show, I saw Ricky Morton's bare ass, and the next time I hear anybody out there say "playing Ricky Morton", the person they mention had best have a really nice ass.
OK, but he was still putting on very, very good matches in 2000-01 (after his most recent return) until he appeared to stop caring anymore.
Besides, nothing I said had anything to do with Austin's actual physical condition! It's all about how his in-ring approach has changed-- it's all in his mind, and it doesn't have anything to do with his worsening physical presence.
“What's so great about crack?” “Uh, uh, it enhances your personality.” “Yes, but what if you're an asshole?”
Originally posted by ekedolphinOK, but he was still putting on very, very good matches in 2000-01 (after his most recent return) until he appeared to stop caring anymore.
Besides, nothing I said had anything to do with Austin's actual physical condition! It's all about how his in-ring approach has changed-- it's all in his mind, and it doesn't have anything to do with his worsening physical presence.
But his broken neck changed his character out of the ring just as much as it did inside it. When he came back too soon fron the injury, he was forced to rely on crap like walking to the ring and stunning people just for the hell of it instead of great matches. It was then that, while he was always good on the mic in the WWF, that he became entirely dependent on his mic work to keep his character over.
Also, another thing to keep in mind- Austin was a heel in that match against Bret Hart. For most of the last 5 years, he has been a face and faces and heels use different psychology in the ring in the WWF.